Contents

Hainan Island lies midway between French Indochina and Hong Kong, occupying a position south of the Leizhou Peninsula across the Strait of Hainan. It is also near Kwangchowan, a French-leased territory on the southern coast of China. The 33,920 km2 (13,100 sq mi) Hainan Island had a population of 2,200,000 at the time. The island was guarded by the 152nd Division, approximately 25,000 strong, under the command of Yu Hanmou, who was in charge of peace preservation in Kwangtung Province.

The Japanese Navy, after the capture of Canton (Guangzhou) the previous year, had maintained a formidable blockade all along the coast of south, central and north China. However, loopholes were found in the southern end of the blockade line. These included the supply route to Chiang Kai-shek with Hong Kong and Northern French Indo-China as relay points and the direct routes though Hainan Island and Kwangchowan areas. Because of these loopholes, as well as the necessity to conduct air operations deep into the interior as far as the Kunming area, the Japanese Navy came to feel the necessity for establishing air bases on Hainan Island. The Central Authorities of the Navy advocated this move. Operations were carried out by the Special Naval Landing Forces with Army elements supporting them.

Escorting a convoy, the South China Naval Force (Fifth Fleet) commanded by Vice Admiral Kondo Nobutake entered and anchored in Tsinghai Bay on the northern shore of Hainan Island at midnight on 9 February 1939 and carried out a successful landing. In addition, Navy land combat units effected a landing at Haikou at 1200 on 10 February. Thereafter, the Army and Navy forces acted in concert to mop up the northern zone. On 11 February the land combat units landed at Samah (Sanya) at the southern extremity of Hainan Island and occupied the key positions of Yulin and Yai-Hsien. Thereafter, the units engaged in the occupation and subjugation of the entire island.

The Communists under Feng Baiju and the native Li people of Hainan fought a vigorous guerrilla campaign against the Japanese occupation, but in retaliation over one third of the male population were killed by the Japanese.

Later, Hainan Island became a naval administrative district with Hainan Guard District Headquarters established at Samah. Strategically, the island was built as a forward air base as well as an advance base for blockading Chiang. At the same time, the iron and copper resources of the island were exploited. Control of Hainan Island provided a base of operations for the invasion of Guangdong province and French Indochina, as well as providing airbases that permitted long-distance air raids of routes into China from French Indochina and Burma.

1.
Second Sino-Japanese War
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The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from July 7,1937 to September 9,1945. The First Sino-Japanese War was fought from 1894 to 1895, China fought Japan, with some economic help from Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged into the conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War. Many scholars consider the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 to have been the beginning of World War II, the Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century. The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy to expand its influence politically and militarily in order to access to raw material reserves, food. The period after World War One brought about increasing stress on the Japanese polity, leftists sought universal suffrage and greater rights for workers. Increasing textile production from Chinese mills was adversely affecting Japanese production, the Depression brought about a large slowdown in exports. All of this contributed to militant nationalism, culminating in the rise to power of a militarist fascist faction and this faction was led at its height by the Imperial Rule Assistance Associations Hideki Tojo cabinet under the edict from Emperor Shōwa. Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements, the last of these incidents was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, which is traditionally seen as the beginning of total war between the two countries. Since 2017 the Chinese Government has regarded the invasion of Manchuria by the Kwantung Army in 1931, initially the Japanese scored major victories, such as the Battle of Shanghai, and by the end of 1937 captured the Chinese capital of Nanjing. After failing to stop the Japanese in Wuhan, the Chinese central government was relocated to Chongqing in the Chinese interior, by 1939, after Chinese victories in Changsha and Guangxi, and with Japans lines of communications stretched deep into the Chinese interior, the war reached a stalemate. The Japanese were also unable to defeat the Chinese communist forces in Shaanxi, on December 7,1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the following day the United States declared war on Japan. The United States began to aid China via airlift matériel over the Himalayas after the Allied defeat in Burma that closed the Burma Road, in 1944 Japan launched the invasion, Operation Ichi-Go, that conquered Henan and Changsha. However, this failed to bring about the surrender of Chinese forces, in 1945, the Chinese Expeditionary Force resumed its advance in Burma and completed the Ledo Road linking India to China. At the same time, China launched large counteroffensives in South China and retook the west Hunan, the remaining Japanese occupation forces formally surrendered on September 9,1945 with the following International Military Tribunal for the Far East convened on April 29,1946. China was recognized as one of the Big Four of Allies during the war, in the Chinese language, the war is most commonly known as the War of Resistance Against Japan, and also known as the Eight Years War of Resistance, simply War of Resistance. It is also referred to as part of the Global Anti-Fascist War, which is how World War 2 is perceived by the Communist Party of China, in Japan, nowadays, the name Japan–China War is most commonly used because of its perceived objectivity. In Japan today, it is written as 日中戦争 in shinjitai, the word incident was used by Japan, as neither country had made a formal declaration of war

2.
Hainan
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Hainan is the smallest and southernmost province of the Peoples Republic of China, consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. Hainan Island, separated from Guangdongs Leizhou Peninsula by the Qiongzhou Strait, is the largest island under PRC control and makes up the majority of the province. The province has an area of 33,920 square kilometers, with Hainan Island making up 32,900 square kilometers, there are a total of ten major cities and ten counties in Hainan Province. Haikou on the northern coast of Hainan Island is the capital while Sanya is a well-known tourist destination on the southern coast, the other major cities are Wenchang, Qionghai, Wanning, Wuzhishan, Dongfang, and Danzhou. Chinas controversial claims in the South China Sea, including the Nansha and Xisha Islands, are administered as part of the province. The provincial name derives from its island, Hainan, which is named for its position south of the Qiongzhou Strait. Former names for Hainan Island include Zhuya, Qiongya, and Qiongzhou, the later two gave rise to the provincial abbreviation 瓊 or 琼. Hainan Island first entered history in 110 BC, when the Han dynasty of China established a military garrison there following the arrival of General Lu Bode. In 46 BC the Han court decided that the conquest was too expensive, around that time, Han Chinese people together with military personnel and officials began to migrate to Hainan Island from the mainland. Among them were the offspring of those who were banished to Hainan for political reasons, most of them arrived in Hainan Island from the southern Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Guangxi. Li people are the inhabitants of Hainan. They are believed to be the descendants of the ancient tribes from the mainland, some others live elsewhere on Hainan with other ethnic groups in Danzhou, Wanning, Qionghai, Lingshui and Tunchang. The area inhabited by the Li ethnic group totals 18,700 square kilometers, during the Three Kingdoms Period, Hainan was the Zhuya Commandery under the control of Eastern Wu. At the time of the Song dynasty, Hainan became part of Guangxi, under the Mongol Empire the island became an independent province then in 1370 was placed under the administration of Guangdong by the ruling Ming dynasty. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, large numbers of Han people from Fujian and Guangdong began migrating to Hainan, in the eighteenth century, the Li rebelled against the Qing Empire, which responded by bringing in mercenaries from the Miao regions of Guizhou. Many of the Miao settled on the island and their descendants live in the highlands to this day. During the 17th and 18th centuries, explorers referred to the island as Aynam, in 1906, the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen proposed that Hainan should become a separate province although this did not happen until 1988. Hainan was historically part of Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces and as such was the Qiongya Circuit under the 1912 establishment of the Republic of China

3.
Empire of Japan
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The Empire of Japan was the historical Japanese nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 to the enactment of the 1947 constitution of modern Japan. Imperial Japans rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyōhei led to its emergence as a world power, after several large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, the Empire also gained notoriety for its war crimes against the peoples it conquered. A period of occupation by the Allies followed the surrender, Occupation and reconstruction continued well into the 1950s, eventually forming the current nation-state whose full title is the State of Japan or simply rendered Japan in English. The historical state is referred to as the Empire of Japan or the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan in English. In Japanese it is referred to as Dai Nippon Teikoku, which translates to Greater Japanese Empire and this is analogous to Großdeutsches Reich, a term that translates to Greater German Empire in English and Dai Doitsu Teikoku in Japanese. This meaning is significant in terms of geography, encompassing Japan, due to its name in kanji characters and its flag, it was also given the exonym Empire of the Sun. After two centuries, the policy, or Sakoku, under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. The following years saw increased trade and interaction, commercial treaties between the Tokugawa shogunate and Western countries were signed. In large part due to the terms of these Unequal Treaties, the Shogunate soon faced internal hostility, which materialized into a radical, xenophobic movement. In March 1863, the Emperor issued the order to expel barbarians, although the Shogunate had no intention of enforcing the order, it nevertheless inspired attacks against the Shogunate itself and against foreigners in Japan. The Namamugi Incident during 1862 led to the murder of an Englishman, Charles Lennox Richardson, the British demanded reparations but were denied. While attempting to exact payment, the Royal Navy was fired on from coastal batteries near the town of Kagoshima and they responded by bombarding the port of Kagoshima in 1863. For Richardsons death, the Tokugawa government agreed to pay an indemnity, shelling of foreign shipping in Shimonoseki and attacks against foreign property led to the Bombardment of Shimonoseki by a multinational force in 1864. The Chōshū clan also launched the coup known as the Kinmon incident. The Satsuma-Chōshū alliance was established in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, in early 1867, Emperor Kōmei died of smallpox and was replaced by his son, Crown Prince Mutsuhito. On November 9,1867, Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned from his post and authorities to the Emperor, however, while Yoshinobus resignation had created a nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. On January 3,1868, Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the palace in Kyoto. On January 17,1868, Yoshinobu declared that he would not be bound by the proclamation of the Restoration, on January 24, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces

4.
Imperial Japanese Navy
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The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 until 1945, when it was dissolved following Japans defeat and surrender in World War II. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force was formed after the dissolution of the IJN, the Japanese Navy was the third largest navy in the world by 1920, behind the Royal Navy and the United States Navy. It was supported by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service for aircraft and it was the primary opponent of the Western Allies in the Pacific War. This eventually led to the Meiji Restoration, accompanying the re-ascendance of the Emperor came a period of frantic modernization and industrialization. Following the attempts at Mongol invasions of Japan by Kubilai Khan in 1274 and 1281, Japan undertook major naval building efforts in the 16th century, during the Warring States period, when feudal rulers vying for supremacy built vast coastal navies of several hundred ships. Around that time Japan may have developed one of the first ironclad warships when Oda Nobunaga, in 1588 Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued a ban on Wakō piracy, the pirates then became vassals of Hideyoshi, and comprised the naval force used in the Japanese invasion of Korea. Japan built her first large ocean-going warships in the beginning of the 17th century, from 1604 the Bakufu also commissioned about 350 Red seal ships, usually armed and incorporating some Western technologies, mainly for Southeast Asian trade. For more than 200 years, beginning in the 1640s, the Japanese policy of seclusion forbade contacts with the outside world and prohibited the construction of ocean-going ships on pain of death. Contacts were maintained, however, with the Dutch through the port of Nagasaki, the Chinese also through Nagasaki and the Ryukyus and Korea through intermediaries with Tsushima. Apart from Dutch trade ships no other Western vessels were allowed to enter Japanese ports, an exception was during the Napoleonic wars. However frictions with foreign ships started from the beginning of the 19th century, the Nagasaki Harbour Incident involving the HMS Phaeton in 1808 and other subsequent incidents in the following decades led to the Shogunate to enact an edict to repel foreign vessels. Western ships which were increasing their presence around Japan due to whaling, the shogunate also began to strengthen the nations coastal defenses. Numerous attempts to open Japan ended in failure in part to Japanese resistance, during 1853 and 1854, American warships under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry entered Edo Bay and made demonstrations of force requesting trade negotiations. After two hundred years of seclusion the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa led to the opening of Japan to international trade and this was soon followed by the 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce and treaties with other powers. In 1855, with Dutch assistance, the Shogunate acquired its first steam warship, Kankō Maru, samurai such as the future Admiral Enomoto Takeaki were sent by the Shogunate to study in the Netherlands for several years. In 1859 the Naval Training Center relocated to Tsukiji in Tokyo, in 1857 the Shogunate acquired its first screw-driven steam warship Kanrin Maru and used it as an escort for the 1860 Japanese delegation to the United States. In 1865 the French naval engineer Léonce Verny was hired to build Japans first modern naval arsenals, at Yokosuka, in 1867–1868 a British Naval mission headed by Commander Richard Tracey went to Japan to assist the development of the Japanese Navy and to organize the naval school of Tsukiji. The Shogunate also allowed and then ordered various domains to purchase warships and to develop naval fleets, Satsuma, a naval center had been set up by the Satsuma domain in Kagoshima, students were sent abroad for training and a number of ships were acquired

5.
National Revolutionary Army
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It also became the regular army of the ROC during the KMTs period of party rule beginning in 1928. It was renamed the Republic of China Armed Forces after the 1947 Constitution, the NRA was founded by the KMT in 1925 as the military force destined to unite China in the Northern Expedition. Organized with the help of the Comintern and guided under the doctrine of the Three Principles of the People, other prominent commanders included Du Yuming and Chen Cheng. The end of the Northern Expedition in 1928 is often taken as the date when Chinas Warlord era ended, though smaller-scale warlord activity continued for years afterwards. In 1927, after the dissolution of the First United Front between the Nationalists and the Communists, the ruling KMT purged its leftist members and largely eliminated Soviet influence from its ranks. Chiang Kai-shek then turned to Germany, historically a great military power, the Weimar Republic sent advisors to China, but because of the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles they could not serve in military capacities. When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 and disavowed the Treaty, the anti-communist Nazi Party, with Germany training Chinese troops and expanding Chinese infrastructure, while China opened its markets and natural resources to Germany. Max Bauer was the first advisor to China, the plan was never fully realised, as the eternally bickering warlords could not agree upon which divisions were to be merged and disbanded. Furthermore, since embezzlement and fraud were commonplace, especially in understrength divisions, therefore, by July 1937 only eight infantry divisions had completed reorganization and training. These were the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 14th, 36th, 87th, 88th, throughout the Chinese Civil War the National Revolutionary Army experienced major problems with desertion, with many soldiers switching sides to fight for the Communists. Troops in India and Burma during World War II included the Chinese Expeditionary Force, after the drafting and implementation of the Constitution of the Republic of China in 1947, the National Revolutionary Army was renamed as the Republic of China Armed Forces. At the apex of the NRA was the National Military Council, chaired by Chiang Kai-Shek, it directed the staffs and commands. However, many divisions were formed two or more other divisions, and were not active at the same time. Also, New Divisions were created to replace Standard Divisions lost early in the war and were issued the old divisions number, therefore, the number of divisions in active service at any given time is much smaller than this. The average NRA division had 5, 000–6,000 troops, an army division had 10, 000–15,000 troops. Not even the German-trained divisions were on par in terms of manpower with a German or Japanese division, the United States Armys campaign brochure on the China Defensive campaign of 1942–45 said, The NRA only had small number of armoured vehicles and mechanised troops. At the beginning of the war in 1937 the armour were organized in three Armoured Battalions, equipped with tanks and armoured cars from various countries, after these battalions were mostly destroyed in the Battle of Shanghai and Battle of Nanjing. The newly provided tanks, armoured cars, and trucks from the Soviet Union and Italy made it possible to create the only mechanized division in the army and this Division eventually ceased to be a mechanized unit after the June 1938 reorganization of Divisions

6.
January 28 Incident
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The January 28 Incident or Shanghai Incident was a conflict between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan, before official hostilities of the Second Sino-Japanese War commenced in 1937. In Chinese literature it is known as the January 28 Incident, after the Mukden Incident, Japan had acquired the vast northeastern region of China and would eventually establish the puppet government of Manchukuo. However, the Japanese military planned to increase Japanese influence further, especially into Shanghai where Japan, in order to provide a casus belli to justify further military action in China, the Japanese military instigated seemingly anti-Japanese incidents. On January 18, five Japanese Buddhist monks, members of an ardently nationalist sect, were beaten near Shanghais Sanyou Factory by agitated Chinese civilians, two were seriously injured, and one died. Over the next few hours, a burnt down the factory. One policeman was killed and several more hurt when they arrived to quell the disorder, the situation continued to deteriorate over the next week. The militarys justification was that it had to defend its concession, during the afternoon of January 28, the Shanghai Municipal Council agreed to these demands. Throughout this period, the Chinese 19th Route Army had been massing outside the city, causing consternation to the civil Chinese administration of Shanghai and the foreign-run Concessions. The 19th Route Army was generally viewed as more than a warlord force. In the end, Shanghai donated a substantial bribe to the 19th Route Army, hoping that it would leave, however, at midnight on January 28, Japanese carrier aircraft bombed Shanghai in the first major aircraft carrier action in East Asia. In what was a surprising about-face for many, the 19th Route Army, though the opening battles took place in the Hongkew district of the International Settlement, the conflict soon spread outwards to much of Chinese-controlled Shanghai. The majority of the Concessions remained untouched by the conflict and it was often the case that those in the Shanghai International Settlement would watch the war from the banks of Suzhou Creek and they could even visit the battle lines by virtue of their extraterritoriality. On January 30, Chiang Kai-shek decided to relocate the capital from Nanjing to Luoyang as an emergency measure. However, Japan refused, instead continuing to mobilize troops in the region, on February 12, American, British and French representatives brokered a half-day cease fire for humanitarian relief to civilians caught in the crossfire. The same day, the Japanese issued another ultimatum, demanding that the Chinese Army retreat 20 km from the border of Shanghai Concessions and this only intensified fighting in Hongkew. The Japanese were unable to take the city by the middle of February, subsequently, the number of Japanese troops was increased to nearly 90,000 with the arrival of the 9th Infantry Division and the IJA 24th Mixed Brigade, supported by 80 warships and 300 airplanes. On February 14, Chiang Kai-shek sent his 5th Army, including his 87th and 88th divisions, on February 20, Japanese bombardments were increased to force the Chinese away from their defensive positions near Miaohang, while commercial and residential districts of the city were set on fire. The Chinese defensive positions deteriorated rapidly without naval and armored support, Japanese forces increased to over a 100,000 troops, backed by aerial and naval bombardments

7.
Pacification of Manchukuo
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The operations were carried out by the Imperial Japanese Kwantung Army and the collaborationist forces of the Manchukuo government from March 1932 until 1942, and resulted in a Japanese victory. The provincial government of Liaoning Province had fled west to Chinchow, Governor Zang Shiyi remained in Mukden, but refused to cooperate with the Japanese in establishing a separatist and collaborationist government and was imprisoned. On 23 September 1931, Lieutenant General Xi Qia of the Kirin Army was invited by the Japanese to form a government for Kirin Province. In Kirin, the Japanese succeeded in achieving a bloodless occupation of the capital, General Xi Qia issued a proclamation on 30 September, declaring the province independent of the Republic of China under protection of the Japanese Army. On 24 September 1931, a government was formed in Fengtien with Yuan Chin-hai as Chairman of the Committee for the Maintenance of Peace. However he was not able to act as much of the area surrounding Harbin was still held by anti-Japanese militias under Generals Ting Chao, Li Du, Feng Zhanhai and others. After the fall of Chinchow, the movement made rapid progress in northern Manchuria. There he attempted to continue to govern Heilongjiang province, Colonel Kenji Doihara began negotiations with General Ma from his Special Service Office at Harbin, hoping to get him to join the new state of Manchukuo Japan was organizing. Ma continued negotiating with Doihara, while he continued to support General Ting Chao, away from the Japanese garrisons in cities and along the railroads, resistance units mustered openly and relatively free from molestation in late 1931-early 1932. One of the first such forces to form, called the Courageous Citizens Militia, had established by November 1931 near the estuary port of Chinchow. These militias operated principally in southern Fengtien, which had half of Manchurias population, Fengtien had come almost immediately under Japanese control, as most population centers and its capital of Mukden all lay along the tracks of the South Manchuria Railway in the S. M. R. Zone, which had been garrisoned by Kwantung Army troops since long before the conflict, peasant brotherhoods were a traditional form of mutual protection by Chinese small-holders and tenant farmers. Waves of immigrants fleeing the wars of the Warlord era that ravaged north, the Red Spear Society was strongest in the hinterlands of Fengtien and countryside around Harbin. The Big Swords Society predominated in southeastern Kirin and adjoining parts of Fengtien, in 1927, the Big Swords had spearheaded an uprising triggered by the collapse of the prevailing Feng-Piao paper currency. During the rebellion the Big Swords were respected by the peasants because they did not harm or plunder the common people, the Big Swords became the principal component of partisan resistance in this region, forming loose ties with the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies. The bandit leader Lao Pie-fang commanded several bands of Big Swords in western Fengtien, the Big Swords in southeast Kirin were allied with Wang Delin, and General Feng Zhanhai organized and trained a Big Sword Corps of 4,000 men. The Red Spear Society groups were more widespread, members formed important centers of resistance as the war spread out through the countryside. Red Spears frequently attacked the S. M. R, zone from the Hsinlintun and Tungfeng districts, close to Mukden and the Fushun coal mines

8.
Defense of Sihang Warehouse
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Defenders of the warehouse held out against numerous waves of Japanese forces and covered Chinese forces retreating west during the Battle of Shanghai. The successful defense of the warehouse provided a morale-lifting consolation to the Chinese army, the warehouses location just across the Suzhou Creek from the foreign concessions in Shanghai meant the battle took place in full view of the western powers. Moreover, the Japanese dared not use mustard gas here as they did elsewhere in Shanghai and this proximity drew the attention, if only briefly, of the international community to Chiang Kai-sheks bid for worldwide support against Japanese aggression. Using the Marco Polo Bridge Incident as a pretext, Japan launched an invasion of China on 7 July 1937, as the Imperial Japanese Army swept down from the north, fighting between Chinese and Japanese forces started in Shanghai on 13 August. Despite having logistical problems, inferior training, and a lack of air and artillery support, however, the Japanese did not attack the foreign concessions in the city and remained on peaceable terms with the foreign powers, though tensions were high. They did not occupy the concessions until four years later, following Japans decision to go to war with the Allies, by 26 October 1937, Chinese resistance in the district of Zhabei was faltering. Gu was personally attached to the 88th and unwilling to leave the division behind, as he used to be the officer of the 2nd Division. Neither Gu, Sun nor Zhang were about to disobey Chiangs orders, in his words, How many people we sacrifice would not make a difference, it would achieve the same purpose. He proposed that a regiment from the division be left behind to defend one or two fortified positions, and Gu approved this plan. Zhang returned to the 88ths divisional headquarters at Sihang Warehouse, back at the headquarters, Sun decided that even a regiment would be a terrible waste of lives and decided on a single over-strength battalion instead. Xie Jinyuan, a new commander in the 88th Division. At 10 p. m. on 26 October, the 524th Regiment, based at the Shanghai North Railway Station, the warehouse, used as the divisional headquarters of the 88th Division prior to this battle, was stocked with food, first aid equipment, shells and ammunition. Most of the men were from the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment of the Hubei Provincial Garrison, Hubei did not want to send its best troops, trained over a decade to fight against the Chinese Communists, to Shanghai. Thus, many of the soldiers sent as reinforcements to Shanghai were green recruits, eventually the 1st Battalion came to be equated with the 524th Regiment, even within official documents of the period. The regiment was assigned used equipment from the troops of the 88th. There was a total of 27 light machine guns, mostly Czech ZB vz.26, Japanese infantry used the Arisaka Type 38 Rifle. The various companies of the battalion were spread out across the front lines that night, Yang Ruifu sent the 1st Company to Sihang Warehouse and personally led the 2nd Company. The 3rd Company, Machine Gun Company and part of the 1st Company could not be contacted and that these men essentially volunteered for this suicidal mission was later noted by Chiang Kai-shek as exemplary soldierly conduct

9.
Battle of Nanking
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Following the outbreak of war between Japan and China in July 1937 the Japanese government at first attempting to contain the fighting and sought a negotiated settlement to the war. However, after victory in the Battle of Shanghai expansionists prevailed within the Japanese military, Japanese soldiers marched from Shanghai to Nanking at a breakneck pace, rapidly defeating pockets of Chinese resistance. By December 9 they had reached the last line of defense, on December 10 Matsui ordered an all-out attack on Nanking, and after less than two days of intense fighting Chiang decided to abandon the city. Before fleeing, Tang ordered his men to launch a concerted breakout of the Japanese siege, most of Tangs units simply collapsed, their soldiers often casting off their weapons and uniforms in the streets in the hopes of hiding among the citys civilian population. Following the capture of the city Japanese soldiers massacred Chinese prisoners of war, murdered civilians, though Japans military victory excited and emboldened them, the subsequent massacre tarnished their reputation in the eyes of the world. Contrary to Matsuis expectations, China did not surrender and the Second Sino-Japanese War continued for eight years. China, however, wanted to avoid a confrontation in the north. The Japanese responded by dispatching the Shanghai Expeditionary Army, commanded by General Iwane Matsui, the city of Nanking is 300 kilometers west of Shanghai. Matsui made clear to his superiors even before he left for Shanghai that he wanted to march on Nanking, Yanagawa was likewise eager to conquer Nanking and both men chafed under the operation restriction line that had been imposed on them by the Army General Staff. On November 19 Yanagawa ordered his 10th Army to pursue retreating Chinese forces across the operation restriction line to Nanking, when Tada discovered this the next day he ordered Yanagawa to stop immediately, but was ignored. Matsui made some effort to restrain Yanagawa, but also told him that he could send some advance units beyond the line. Meanwhile, as more and more Japanese units continued to slip past the operation restriction line, Tada flew to Shanghai in person on December 1 to deliver the order, though by then his own armies in the field were already well on their way to Nanking. Here Chiang insisted fervently on mounting a defense of Nanking. He also noted that holding onto Nanking would strengthen Chinas hand in peace talks which he wanted the German ambassador Oskar Trautmann to mediate and they argued that the Chinese Army needed more time to recover from its losses at Shanghai, and pointed out that Nanking was highly indefensible topographically. The mostly gently sloping terrain in front of Nanking would make it easy for the attackers to advance on the city, while the Yangtze River behind Nanking would cut off the defenders retreat. Chiang, however, had become increasingly agitated over the course of the Battle of Shanghai, even declaring that he would stay behind in Nanking alone. Seizing the opportunity Tang had given him, Chiang responded by organizing the Nanking Garrison Force on November 20, the orders Tang received from Chiang on November 30 were to defend the established defense lines at any cost and destroy the enemy’s besieging force. Though both men declared that they would defend Nanking to the last man, they were aware of their precarious situation

10.
Battle of Wuhan
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The Battle of Wuhan, popularly known to the Chinese as the Defense of Wuhan, and to the Japanese as the Capture of Wuhan, was a large-scale battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War. More than one million National Revolutionary Army troops were gathered, with Chiang Kai-shek personally in command, engagements were in both the northern and southern shores of the Yangtze River, spreading across vast areas of the Anhui, Henan, Jiangxi and Hubei provinces. On 7 July 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army launched an invasion of China. With the onset of the war, Beijing and Tianjin fell to the Japanese in less one month. On 12 November, the Japanese Army captured Shanghai, Nanjing was at risk of being besieged, and the Chinese government was forced to transfer its capital to Chongqing. However, the Chinese government did not transfer its elite troops, assistance from the USSR provided additional military and technical resources, including a small band of Soviet Air Force volunteers. Wuhan, located halfway up the Yangtze River, was the second largest city at the time with a population of two million, the city was divided by the Yangtze River and Hanshui into three regions, Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang. Wuchang was the center, Hankou was a commercial district while Hanyang was the industrial estate. After the completion of the Yuehan Railway, the importance of Wuhan as a transportation hub in inland China was further established. When Japan captured Nanjing on 13 December, the Chinese shifted structures and industries to Wuhan, the Chinese war effort was focused on protecting Wuhan from being occupied by the Japanese. The Japanese government and the headquarters of the China Expeditionary Force thereby expected that the fall of Wuhan would lead to the end of Chinese resistance, the Battle of Wuhan was preceded by a Japanese air strike on 28 February 1938. It was known as the 2.28 Air battle and the Chinese were able to repel the attack, on 24 March, the Diet of Japan passed the National Mobilization Law that authorized unlimited funding of war. As part of the law, the National Service Draft Ordinance also allowed the conscription of civilians, on 29 April, the Japanese air force launched major air strikes on Wuhan to celebrate Emperor Hirohitos birthday. The Chinese, knowing this beforehand, were well prepared and this battle was known as the 4.29 Air battle, one of the most intense air battles of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The ROCAF shot down 21 Japanese planes at a loss of 12, after the fall of Xuzhou in May 1938, the Japanese planned an extensive invasion of Hankou and the takeover of Wuhan, intending to destroy the main force of the National Revolutionary Army. The Chinese, on the hand, were preparing for the defense of Wuhan. They managed to gather up more than one million troops, around 300 planes and 50 naval ships. In an attempt to buy time for the preparation of the defense of Wuhan

11.
Bombing of Chongqing
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A total of 268 air raids were conducted against Chongqing, with more than 11,500, mainly incendiary, bombs dropped. The targets were usually residential areas, business areas, schools, hospitals and these bombings were probably aimed at cowing the Chinese government, or as part of the planned Sichuan invasion. In the first two days of the campaign, the raids of May 1939 killed more than five thousand Chinese civilians, on 5 June 1941, the Japanese flew more than 20 sorties, bombing the city for three hours. About 4,000 residents who hid in a tunnel were asphyxiated, the majority of the air raids conducted against Chongqing were made with squadrons of medium-heavy bombers composed of Mitsubishi G3Ms, known as Nells, Ki-21s Sallys, Fiat BR. The introduction of the Zero-sen fighter plane in 1940, the most advanced fighter aircraft at the time. The last recorded air raid of the campaign took place on 19 December 1944, three-thousand tons of bombs were dropped on the city between 1939 and 1942. A total of 268 air raids were conducted against Chongqing, in March 2006,40 Chinese who were wounded or lost family members during the bombings sued the Japanese government demanding 10,000,000 yen each and asked for apologies. By filing a lawsuit, we want the Japanese people to know about Chongqing bombings, memorial site Bombing of Chongqing, Nippon News, No.2. in the official website of NHK

Hainan is the smallest and southernmost province of China, consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. Hainan …

Haikou, the capital of the province as seen looking south from Evergreen Park, a large park located on the north shore of the city

Hainanese residents in the countryside

The capital city of Haikou, although highly populated relative to many other international cities, is geographically quite small, with almost no urban sprawl. Much of the city limits end abruptly with forest or farm land.